Kirsten Forkert, AIR 2005

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Kirsten Forkert is an artist, writer, and teacher. For the past few years, her work has explored the problematics of conceiving of collective experience and the public sphere in a neoliberal climate, where both identity and community are defined primarily through consumer choice. She has worked individually, collaboratively with John Dummett and as a member of the Counterpublics collective.

Project Discription

My work at the Berwick will explore our understanding and experience of public space and services in the present political climate. I am defining public space and services in a broad sense, including access to media and information. The work will begin by asking, “what is public space /services?” and, related to this, “who is the public?” Do we understand ‘the public’ to mean everyone, or do we mean only those who fit official representations of ‘the public’? When we say ‘public services’, do we mean those that are offered by the government? Or do we mean those that operate according to principles of common ownership and responsibility, and free and equal access, regardless of whether they are offered by the government or not?

The project is in response to the present climate of privatization, and related to this, how we internalize ideologies of individualism (‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’) and conflate personal and social responsibility. However, certain definitions of ‘the public’ have historically excluded certain people, and have been used to manage and control marginalized populations. The project will explore these contradictions around the definition and experience of ‘public space/services’:

Public services for those who can’t afford private services
Public space/services as only existing for those who are entitled to belong to the ‘public’, who fit official representations of the public
Public services vs. charities
Public services as social management
Public media vs. state media
Public space as providing an alternative to consumer culture
Public space and services as a working model of the commons

In a larger sense, my work for the residency will be an exploration of democracy and the public sphere. The work will begin with the premise that public space/services are necessary for democracy in practice, rather than a situation where ‘democracy’ exists on the level of official culture or public image, but which doesn’t serve the needs of the public, and where people don’t feel entitled to participate.

The project will involve three ongoing processes:

1. A series of conversations with people in Boston, about their definition of public space, democracy and the public sphere. (should I put a call for participants here?)
2. A series of staged observations/interventions into public space, the public sphere and public services
3. Notes from the conversations and the observation /interventions, as well as my own process of developing ‘local knowledge’ of resources.
This process will take place through a website and an ongoing text-based installation in the studio space at the Berwick. The website and the installation will explore the forms of the map, ‘information resource’ and ‘reading room’, in terms of how information is made public or visible.